Turning the page

CHICAGO – As the two remaining playoff races played out elsewhere and the Chicago White Sox parted ways with longtime manager Ozzie Guillen, the Toronto Blue Jays continued their drama-free roll through the end of the season.

The big news of the day was Jose Bautista making his way into the lineup at DH for Monday’s 4-3 loss to the Pale Hose, a day after badly bruising his left knee in a crash against the Tropicana Field fence while trying to make a catch.

Though there was little on the line for the Blue Jays (80-80), the superstar slugger and his teammates are seeking to finish strong as they continue the arduous process of building toward what they hope is a more prosperous future.

Bautista sees progress on that front this year, and feels games of substance this late in the season are coming.

"I don’t think we’re that far from contending," he said before going 0-for-2 with three walks. "If you just look at some of the peripheral numbers from this year, if we win 10 of the 25 blown saves we have, we’ll be playing 20 games over .500. That’s a huge number right there just if we had more stability in the back-end of the bullpen. That’s not even considering all the injuries, all the people who haven’t done what they’re capable of doing, and all the trades we had.

"With more consistency in the lineup and hopefully more health and people just doing what they’re capable of doing without doing anything extraordinary, I don’t think we have to wait two or three years to win. It just depends on who we add in the off-season."

Bautista was more guarded in his thoughts about how else general manager Alex Anthopoulos can push the club forward, but conceded that he’s as "a big believer in starting pitching, you can always use some more depth there."

"That’s it," he added. "I feel pretty good about the guys we have on the field right now."

The pitching staff as a whole has been a sore spot for the Blue Jays this season, and finding ways to get more innings from the starting staff and more reliable outings from the bullpen will be needed for improvement.

In an interview with sportsnet.ca last week, Anthopoulos said he foresees lots of internal competition for spots in the rotation but some in the front office feel adding a starter is important.

One wildcard will be Dustin McGowan (0-2), who allowed Tyler Flowers’ three-run shot in the second over four up and down innings during his fourth start. His return from two shoulder surgeries has been nothing short of remarkable, but whether he is ready to start for a full season is an unknown.

Still, McGowan deserves credit for making himself a candidate at all and he has plenty to feel good about heading into the winter.

"Finished the year strong and that’s all I can ask for right now," he said. "I’m healthy, this is a chance to get a little break. The next step is to get a little stronger and get everything in my body strong again so I can pitch a full season."

Bautista also has lots to feel good about after following up his breakout 54-homer campaign with a more well-rounded season that has carried him into the MVP consideration.

His .302 batting average will establish a new career-high and he leads the American League in home runs (43), walks (130) and slugging percentage. While the Blue Jays also-ran status will unfairly hurt him in the eyes of some voters, he made no bones about who his choice would be.

"If I couldn’t vote for myself, probably for Miguel Cabrera," he said.

And if he could he would vote for himself?

"Yeah," he replied. "Wouldn’t you?"

One area of Bautista’s game that continues to frustrate him is hitting with runners in scoring position. In general he says he is not concerned with batting average, feeling on-base percentage is far more important, but with the chance to knock runners in it matters far more.

And his .248 average (27-for-109) with five homers and 50 RBIs troubles him, even though opposing teams took the bat out of his hands regularly by walking him 62 times, 22 of them intentionally.

"Even though I walked more in those situations than others, that’s when my batting average is the lowest and that’s because I was going out of the strike zone chasing pitches," Bautista said. "It’s something I’m going to keep working on and hopefully get better at."

At times, Bautista said, he came out of his disciplined approach because he was trying to make things happen with the bat, "but hitting is a combination of a lot of things and patience is one of them."

"Sometimes I wasn’t just patient enough to wait for a pitch in the strike zone," he said. "I chased pitches out of the zone because I thought they were close enough and they ended up not being close enough."

Even Bautista has some work to do, just like his teammates.

PAPA LIND: Adam Lind, who left the team Friday to attend the birth of his first child in Toronto, rejoined the Blue Jays on Sunday night and was back in the lineup Monday. He went 0-for-5 with an RBI.

SPYGATE: The meeting between the teams was the first since Bautista named the White Sox as the accusers in an ESPN The Magazine story alleging the Blue Jays had a man in white sitting in the outfield stealing signs. Not that Bautista paid it any mind. "I know the things that came out were all fictitious so I haven’t given it any thought because of that," he said.

NOTES: McGowan allowed four hits and three walks during his outing, throwing 73 pitches, 39 for strikes. … Kyle Drabek, another candidate for the 2012 rotation, allowed a run on two hits, while right-hander Chad Beck threw a scoreless frame. Bautista initially hoped to play the outfield, too, but some lingering swelling in his knee restricted his movement. Given that it bothers him when he runs and that field was a touch slick from sporadic showers, DH was the best option. Dylan Axelrod (1-0) shut the Blue Jays out for six innings on three hits and two walks. Sergio Santos, a former Blue Jays farmhand as an infielder, surrendered a two-run double to David Cooper before recording his 30th save for the White Sox (78-82).

Shi Davidi is the MLB Insider for sportsnet.ca. Come back to read his insight and opinion regularly.